Private-sector jobs grew .8 percent from Dec. 2005 to Dec. 2006

New York state gained private-sector jobs at almost half the rate of the country as a whole between December 2005 and December 2006, the state Labor Department said Thursday.

The state added 58,200 jobs over the previous year for a growth of .8 percent. Nationally, private jobs increased by 1.4 percent over the same 12-month period.

The state Labor Department said unemployment was 4 percent in New York in December. Analysts said that was the lowest statewide rate on record, equalling the 4 percent rates that were recorded in April 1988 and October 2006. The department has been keeping records in that form since 1976.

The state's jobless rate fell from 4.2 percent in November and from 5 percent in December 2005.

The unemployment rate for the United States as a whole was 4.5 percent in December, unchanged since November and down from 4.9 percent in December 2005.

The traditional leaders of the state's economy, educational-health services and professional-business services, led in job gains over the past year in New York, the Labor Department said. Educational-health services gained 29,500 jobs while professional-business services added 13,400 jobs.

Manufacturing again was the big loser, shedding another 10,300 jobs in the December 2005 through December 2006 period.

The number of private jobs increased by 2,200, or by .6 percent, during the December 2005 through December 2006 period in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y., metropolitan region. That was far outpaced by the 2.4 percent gain made over the same period in the Glens Falls metro region. That represented a gain of 1,000 private jobs in the Glens Falls area.